


Parenthetical, the Second (part three)

by SerenStone



Series: Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light [6]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Do Not Do As the Warlock Do, F/M, We Stan Ghosts in this House, We Stan Warlocks in this House
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:22:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24313474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerenStone/pseuds/SerenStone
Relationships: Guardian/Ghost
Series: Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1743430
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	Parenthetical, the Second (part three)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [S_M_F (Autistic_Ace)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Autistic_Ace/gifts).



As Shry explained the plan to MU-3, Isaac sent a ping to Marikit. “Greetings. I hope today finds you well.”

There was a beat before the other Ghost responded. “Hey. Yeah, I’m alright. You?”

“Perfectly tolerable,” Isaac forced pleasantness into his tone. “I had hoped I might have a conversation with you while our Guardians work. Is that acceptable?”

“You get bored too?” Marikit sounded at once more interested and less.

“I suppose,” Isaac did not. “In this instance, I had hoped to speak with you specifically. Your relationship with your Guardian is a curiosity to me.” That was putting it as kindly as Isaac knew how without lying.

“Ugh,” Marikit sighed. “Fine. What do you want?”

“I am curious what happened that your opinion of him is so low.”

“He’s the worst,” Marikit complained. “Laziest. Spends hours and hours in the oil bath nearly every day. Never did a single job for the Vanguard until Silla somehow got him into gear. Even now he spends most all of his off time doing stupid stuff with oils and alcohol and food and- He pets fabrics a lot.”

“Particular kinds of fabrics?” Isaac asked.

“He goes on and on about how nice they feel. He’s an EXO.”

“EXOs have a great deal of sensory receptors on their hands, among other places.” 

“So?”

Isaac was suddenly glad Shry had blocked off such a length of time for this training exercise. “I have some concerns.”

“Yeah, doesn’t everyone,” Marikit grumbled.

“My concerns are regarding yourself, of course,” Isaac began. “It seems to me that you have failed to understand your Guardian as a person.”

“Well you can fuck off. I understand him better than you do, anyhow. Just because you're Ghost to the hero of the Red War doesn’t mean you get to say shit like that. You’re not even the Ghost who went through the war with her!”

“No. I am the Ghost who convinced her to keep living after the War and losing the Ghost she loved,” Isaac said, firm. That shut Marikit up. Isaac would wonder later if it was what Isaac had done or that Shry had loved Arthil that took up Marikit’s attention. “You seem to have entirely bought into the Vanguard. That is honorable, but not something everyone can do. Indeed, I doubt that every Ghost was meant to Raise a Lightbearer for the Vanguard; the Traveler did not establish the Vanguard but the Speaker. The Speaker spoke; he never claimed to listen.

“I am a Ghost particularly suited to caring for people and seeing to their needs. You are not. You lack the basic empathy and curiosity to be such. Nor does it seem that MU-3 needs or wants those things from you. Different Guardians need different things to help them recover from the weight of their missions. If MU-3 needs oil baths, sweet scents, soft textures, and good food to rediscover himself after a mission, so be it. It harms no one. If you are dissatisfied with his behavior, ask him why he does it and be prepared to let him have different opinions from yours. The only person you can change is yourself. If you are dissatisfied with the amount of work he does for the Vanguard, perhaps you should volunteer in his down time.

“Remember that you and you alone chose to Raise MU-3. He had no say in the matter. For that matter, even with your treatment of him, he has not complained about you, even to Silla. Consider that he has reasons for his behavior and seek the cause of those reasons rather than assume the worst. Assuming you do not terminate your relationship with him, he is your Guardian and you will be working with him for a long time. Do not consign yourself to despising him for the duration; you are both worth more than that.”

Marikit did not respond and Isaac did not ask her to do so. She had much to think over. Isaac instead observed as Shry kept MU safe from the worst of the storm for hours so that he could adjust to the element before she judged he was ready to take a strike or two. The EXO put down a Well of Radiance when she asked and then she called a direct strike. MU’s capacity for obedience went beyond self preservation instincts, Isaac noted as MU kept himself from fleeing the strikes even beyond losing consciousness.

Isaac phased into the material over Shry’s shoulder as she moved into Solar long enough to drop a Well of Radiance at MU’s side. He knew she hated using Solar now, and that it had something to do with the Almighty. She shook the Solar from her hands as MU returned to consciousness. 

“Hey you,” she said gently, crouching beside the EXO. “Can you hear yet?”

“That was awful,” MU said.

“You Stormtranced and didn’t blink; you’re still in the same spot.” Shry was audibly impressed.

“You said to stay,” said MU.

Air left Shry’s lungs in a rush. “Wow. You- You’re the sweetest thing,” she breathed. Isaac allowed himself a measure of smugness. “How do you feel?”

“Like I was on fire,” MU groaned.

“Good way or bad way?” Shry asked. Isaac rather thought the answer to that was that there was no good way to be on fire.

“Four hundred percent internal charge way?”

“Shit,” Shry breathed, half panicking. “I didn’t think of that. Isaac?”

“No internal damage,” he said quickly, calming her. “He switched elements long before the strike hit him.”

“Thank fuck,” she sighed, subsiding.

“When did I switch?” MU asked, curious.

“You had switched to Arc about an hour before she asked for the Well. Back to Arc less than point two seconds after.”

“I had no idea,” the EXO said, surprised.

“I thought that might have been the case,” Shry nodded. “How are you feeling now?”

MU paused before answering. “I still have over 100% internal charge, but I don’t feel like exploding anymore.”

“Rift,” Shry said. As the Rift manifested immediately beneath MU, Isaac reflected again on the degree of his obedience. For the Warlock to be as fearful and anxious as Isaac had seen but to trust Shry’s orders so implicitly would require some interesting acrobatics of reason or perhaps an inconsistency in his understanding of the world. 

“Whoa,” MU-3 said when he realized his Rift was of Arc.

“Let’s get you out of the Well and see how you feel.” She hauled him to his feet.

“Shit, Warlock,” he said. “You lift or something?”

Shry burst into laughter. “What?”

“Nobody but Vice pulls me up that easy.”

“Swords?” Shry offered. “Yanking Titans out of Thundercrash craters?”

“Swords? I thought you were a Stormcaller.”

“I could prove it again,” she teased.

“Nah, it’s cool. But really? Not Dawnblade?”

“Did you not see me using a sword when Silla tethered me?”

“No offense, ma’am, but I didn’t see you at all.”

“Fair,” she decided. “Okay, we should be far enough from the Well. Hit me with Arc.”

“Not, like, a tree?” he checked.

“Masochist,” she singsonged at him.

“Yes’m,” he said, drawing Isaac’s attention fully onto himself. He threw an elemental grenade that hit in the middle of Shry’s chest, Arc coursing through her and spreading to either side. 

“Nice,” she congratulated him. “Attunement of Control. Pulsewave can be critical to escapes.”

“Chaos Reach, right?”

Her gaze sharpened. “Yup.”

“Don’t tell me,” MU sighed.

“Prefer sparring?” she asked.

“Not when learning,” he admitted. “Okay, okay. All of it or?”

When she nodded, he took several steps backward. The EXO broke into Chaos Reach, creating an opening for the storm above and drawing a strike through Shry directly. Isaac could sense the degree to which the surprise strike had not surprised her but had provoked her to orgasm.

“Holy shit,” MU cried, Chaos Reach stuttering to a halt. “Are you okay?”

“Fuck. Yeah, I’m good. I’m fine. I’m perfect.”

“Right, I’ll just uh. Give you a few.” MU found a drier spot to sit down and wait.  
“Sorry about that,” Shry offered when she joined him.

“Are you really?”

“Nope!” 

“You take the phrase you do you pretty literally don’t you?”

Shry laughed so hard it became a cackle. “Oh man. Katya will punch me if I ever say that to her.”

“She’s an enabler then?” She was back to laughing and MU grinned, pleased with himself.

“Chameleon sense of humor, yeah?” she asked and he tilted his head.

“What?”

“You adapt your sense of humor to whomever you’re with at the time.”

“I- Yeah, I guess? I mean, if it isn’t relevant to your audience it isn’t funny.”

“Fair, fair.”

“Wait, is this why she reacted the way she did?” he asked, alarmed.

“Oh no. I don’t think we got that far,” Shry shook her head. “I think it was just the high. She was in Arcstrider so she functioned as part of a circuit more than took the bolts head on. Does she always cycle subclasses that quickly?”

“Uh, no. Just when she’s actually trying or having fun. Most of the time she spars in Nightstalker with us cause she can use Shadowshot to make us think on our feet more. Solar is her damage, Arc is her field control.”

“I don’t think I’ve seen someone switch that quickly before,” Shry admitted. “I need to compliment her on that.”

“She’s intense,” MU agreed. “It’s hard to remember that she’s only like a year.”

“Just over,” Shry sighed, nodding. 

“I’m older than everyone but Rathna,” he confessed. 

Shry nodded. “Lishan after you with Silla the youngest?”

“Yeah. I don’t know how she does it.”

“She’s a genius,” Shry said casually. “She’d been up for less than a month and she already had a solid, unbiased read on the Vanguard and the City. Was already telling me ways I was mishandling one of my projects.”

“What, really?”

“Mhmm. She’s gotten less bossy, actually.”

“That’s… huh.”

“You’re good at supporting her,” said Shry.

“I- uh. Thanks?”

“I got the impression she didn’t expect the fireteam to side with her in that conflict but you were right there and she relaxed when you were.”

“I- uh-”

“Not used to acknowledgement?” Shry had one eyebrow raised. 

“Silla lets me deflect,” MU said slowly. “I think you’d put another strike through me.”

Shry smirked. “I’d think about it at least but I’m in a good mood.”

“That’s good,” he ventured. 

“You’re good at redirecting the rest of the team, too,” Shry continued and he dropped his face in his hands. “And you kept Ardath out of it.”

“Silla told me to,” said MU without lifting his head. 

“And you did it,” she agreed. “You listen.”

“She- she was the first person not to disregard me when I said I wasn’t a fan of the way the Vanguard works. That I wasn’t willing to work on those terms.”

“Good for you,” Shry said, surprising him. “And good for her.”

“You- you think so?” he asked, looking up.

“If I were to tell you all of my problems with the Vanguard and the current set up we’d be here long past the time I told Silla I’d give you back.”

“But you-”

“Yup.”

“So being a hero sucked is what I’m hearing.”

Shry laughed. “Honey, you have no idea. Being the only one with Light was miserable.” Isaac was pleased; she was already using pet names for MU-3. She’d maintain contact with this one.

“Wait, Silla’s expecting me after this?”

“Mhmm. She wants the team to go over what they learned.”

“I just shocked you into an orgasm. I cannot do that right now.”

“Well,” she chuckled. “You have about half an hour before we start the flight back.”

“You’re like… her aunt or something. I can’t do this,” he buried his face in his hands again.

Shry choked on her disagreement. “Honey, I absolutely refuse to be Vynn’s sister.”

“But you lik- _ah fuck._ I can’t know these things!”

While Shry cackled at MU’s distress, Isaac enjoyed her pleasure and considered the day well spent. He was fairly confident that he’d gotten his point across to Marikit, MU-3 had learned Arc, and Shry had laughed more than she had in a long time. The more Isaac considered the apparent disconnect between MU-3’s trust of Shry and his general anxiety, the more he wondered if it was that MU trusted Shry because Silla had assigned this. They piled back into Shry’s ship for the trip back.

“Isaac?” Marikit pinged him. 

“Yes?” he answered immediately.

“Do you think he would tell me numbers jokes?”

“He would,” Isaac said with full certainty. “If he knew you wanted them.”

“Okay,” she said slowly. “I’ll try what you said.”

“I am glad,” Isaac said, allowing warmth to infuse his tone. “You are welcome to contact me if you have other questions.”

“Okay,” she said again. “Can I shove him at you if he doesn’t let me try this?”

“Why don’t you let me know what happens and I’ll see what I can do,” Isaac countered, amused but hopeful. “I’ll be glad to help if it’s needed. I think he will be glad to listen.”

“If you say so,” Marikit said, disbelieving. 

“I do,” Isaac said. “I think you might even enjoy it.”


End file.
